


Matching

by aron_kristina



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Community: thegameison_sh, Cousins, Friendship, Gen, matching clothes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-01
Updated: 2011-05-01
Packaged: 2017-10-18 20:19:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/192895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aron_kristina/pseuds/aron_kristina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They used to have matching clothes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Matching

**Author's Note:**

> Written for thegameison_sh. Beta-read by C. Feedback and concrit welcome.

Her mother tells her she met him the first time when she was only a month old. The first time she remembers meeting him was when she was five. They had just moved back from France, and Liz was told they’d go meet her aunt and cousin. She remembers that their mothers had called each other before leaving for the tea room, and made sure they had matching clothes. She had taken one look at her cousin and disliked him on sight.

“You didn’t like France,” he stated. “You thought it smelled weird.” Liz glared at him.

“I’ll tell Mother that you took two cream buns,” Liz says, and cousin Mycroft looks at her. He reaches out a hand.

“Truce?” She shakes it.

*

Of course, they meet quite a lot over the next few years. Their mothers are close, and so they spend a lot of time together. As soon as they are leaving the house she and Mycroft have to wear matching clothes, and Liz hates it. She hates Mycroft too, with his strange name, and his intelligence. Their interactions consist mainly of trying to outsmart one another, and she wins as much as she loses. Still, she does sort of look forward to seeing Mycroft, because he keeps her entertained.

*

When Liz is eight Mycroft gets a brother. She’d known for a while that the baby was coming, because Aunt C had a big belly, and her mother had explained to her about babies. She thought it sounded gross and fascinating at the same time.

Mycroft stays at their place while Aunt C is in the hospital, and late in the afternoon they get a phone call telling them to come visit.

Liz thinks the baby is ugly, all red and wrinkly and with lots of black hair, but Mycroft is spellbound. He can’t stop looking at the baby, and asking Aunt C if he can hold him. Aunt C says no, not yet, and Mycroft’s face falls, so Aunt C lets him sit next to her on the bed and they hold the baby together. Liz feels wildly jealous, and she wants the baby to be gone.

On the ride home mother asks if she didn’t think the baby cute, and Liz answers no. Mother laughs at her and Liz gets the feeling Mother didn’t understand.

*

They still wear matching clothes, but now Mycroft and the horrible baby (she refuses to learn his name) have the same clothes, and she has some kind of girl version of those clothes. It’s not the same. She stops asking her mother if Mycroft can come over, and soon they only see each other on the holidays.

Eventually her mother stops making her wear clothes that match Mycroft’s.

*

They haven’t met in over twenty years, not since she moved to France again. She has never stopped being jealous, and he hasn’t stopped loving his brother, but now that she has children of her own she’s starting to understand. Understand the way you can love many people at once (even if that love hadn’t been enough for her ex-husband).

She sees him coming towards her from across the room. He’s wearing a perfectly cut suit, of course, and a white shirt. His tie is a perfect match for the blouse she’s wearing. She smiles, and stands up to greet him.


End file.
